I am a christian but I am not Catholic, I am a Lutheran. If you ask a few choice devout Catholics, Luther was a drunken heretic who's supporters were brutal in their methods. The Catholics were in fact responsible for the Crusades killing all those Muslims...right?
Yet if history is the basis for religions the Islamic people should be branded for the crusades for they are what started them. Yet if we go back further, Europe was doing its share of pushing and shoving, it wasn't just random. But if you go back even further Islam was founded by a misunderstanding of Jewish and Christian scriptures which Mohamed proceeded to take to a nonreligious chaotic land and then use to gain power fueling his own campaign for control even naming a key profit Mohamed. All in all the only thing accomplished by the crusades was the rise of the corrupt Papacy and the division of the Church into East and West in 1056 A.D.
But back to my original point. Lutheranism was formed as a result of a humble monk named Martin Luther doing what no Catholic at the time would ever do. He said the Bible is more important than what the Papacy said. Go figure we should base our religion off of our teachings. After going on a pilgrimage to Rome, he saw so much corruption in the system of Church Government and Icons (religious symbols being worshiped and donated to [all funds to the Pope of course.]), he questioned his abbot. He read the scriptures and came across a very important passage that would shake the foundations of Catholicism. "For by GRACE you have been saved through FAITH; and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God; not as result of WORKS, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for GOOD WORKS, which God PREPARED BEFOREHAND so that we would WALK IN THEM." (Ephesians 2:8-10). There it was in front of him.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Western European Christendom in the time shortly before the Reformation, there was a particular issue which Martin Luther spoke out against and pissed off the Pope. These were known as indulgences. According to the Vatican, these pieces of paper you could buy would free you from an amount of time in a place called purgatory which is not in the Bible anywhere. Go look. You won't find it. Meanwhile these funds were going directly from the hands of the public masses to the Vatican library which, of course was not open to the Vulgar masses who had paid its way into existence.
Luther proceeded to call for a meeting of scholars to discuss the scriptures he had stumbled across. He got his meeting but it was not a debate. It was a Luther in the hot seat being bombarded with accusations of associations with John Hus and John Wycliffe, men from before Luther's time who had been murdered by the church for speaking out against corruption in the clergy. Luther was now a heretic, saved only by being kept in the castle of Frederick the wise where Luther translated the Bible word for word so that everyone could read the message themselves and not have to rely on others to tell them what to believe and be subject to deceit caused by the need for self gain. And this man was, and is to this day, labeled as a heretic. And to me, he is a hero.
At no time was Luther intending to tear down the Catholic church. He even scolded his followers for attempting to start riots. His goal was to heal the Church and he was cast aside for this. He gave the light to the common people as the Clergy stole their money. You can probably see why more people followed his movement above what they had been learning, especially once they got a hold of their very own Bibles thanks to Johan Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press. And so i leave you with this: That one person speaking out who is silenced by the masses. The only one saying THIS IS WRONG. Perhaps it is worth your time to hear them out. Don't get me wrong, just because everyone is doing something and one person disagrees doesn't mean that one person is some kind of amazing revolutionary. But couldn't it be that the majority isn't always the correct side of the argument? Can't we all just stop and think to ourselves is this something to truly believe in?



Sincerely, Kenny